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Nothing gets your house looking nicer than a fresh coat of paint, but how do you make sure your paint will keep looking great for years to come?

Easy. Just follow these simple – but very important – tips to painting your house properly. You’ll be left with a great looking home that shines for years!

Step 1: Inspect The Exterior Of Your Home

This is a fundamental, and often overlooked, step. Before you start painting your house, it’s very important to take a good look at the exterior for signs of wear and tear, like water damage, mildew or mold, and popped nails.

Step 2: Repair Any Issues Seen In Initial Inspection

Once you've reviewed the exterior of your house, it's time to take action! Remember, if you don't fix the issues that you see now, a new coat of paint will only mask them temporarily – water damage, mold and other issues will continue to rear their ugly heads until they've been fully fixed.

Step 3: Clean The Exterior Of Your Home

Now that you've thoroughly inspected the outside of your home, it's time to clean everything and get ready for the painting!

You can approach the cleaning of your home in a variety of ways. For smaller homes, a simple hose can suffice. For areas where there is pretty heavy dirt, you can use a scrub brush and soapy water.

For larger homes, you’ll need a bit of extra power to get the job done efficiently, so we'd recommend a power washer.

If your inspection turned up any mildew, a mixture of bleach and water will deal with that efficiently.

Step 4: Remove Obstacles

The exterior of the home has many obstacles that can get in the way of painting. For instance: mailboxes, street address numbers, light fixtures and shutters all should be removed prior to beginning the painting.

In addition to the above, keep an eye out for trees scraping up against your home or greenery that could get in the way of painting. Prune or cover any problem trees.

Step 5: Choose Your Primer

Now that your home is ready for painting, it's time to choose your primer. Primer is a very important step in the painting of your home – many DIY'ers neglect it, leading to an unsatisfying final look.

Think of Primer as the "glue" that holds the paint to your home. Without it, your paint job can run into real problems!

Step 6: Choose Your Paint

Finally, it's time to choose your paint. First off, make sure your paint is designed for exterior use. You'll have two options: latex and oil-based paint. Latex tends to be the easiest for the DIY'er – it's easy to clean up, and stands up to the elements well. Oil-based paints also stand up to the elements well, but have an issue with how they're applied – the paint never completely dries, and is prone to issues like curing.

Step 7: You're All Set!

You've now taken all of the steps for the perfect exterior painting. Your last step is to paint away!
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Peter Martino is a project consultant for United Home Experts, which is a full-service home improvement company specializing in siding, roofing, painting, windows and doors in Eastern and Central Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Southern New Hampshire. United Home Experts was founded in 1997, and has served over 5000 customers. Their focus is on quality craftsmanship and excellent customer service.

Thanks so much for reading.